Читать книгу Haunted Britain and Ireland: Over 100 of the Scariest Places to Visit in the UK and Ireland - Derek Acorah - Страница 27

The White Hart Hotel is situated in the centre of medieval Lincoln, between the eleventh-century cathedral and the Norman castle. There has been an inn on this site since 1460 and the oldest part of the current building, the east wing, was built in 1710. The hotel has had many illustrious guests over the years, including the then Prince of Wales, who had lunch there in 1925, and the Yeomen of the Guard, who stayed at the hotel when the annual Maundy Thursday ceremony took place in Lincoln cathedral. More recently, the cast and crew of The Da Vinci Code stayed at the hotel while filming scenes in Lincoln cathedral.

There are several ghosts at the White Hart. The former stables, now the Orangery restaurant, are haunted by a highwayman who came to grief when a coachman thrust a torch into his face. Now he can be seen hiding his face in a cloak. The Orangery is noted for being unusually cold.

Another ghost is a young girl known as ‘the Mobcap Girl’. She was a hotel maid who took the fancy of the hotel’s ratcatcher. When she spurned his advances, he murdered her. She has since been seen cowering on the first-floor landing.

One of the hotel rooms was also the scene of an untimely death when a guest committed suicide there one Bank Holiday in the 1960s. A sad atmosphere pervades the room to this day and ghostly crying has been heard there.

Several of the hotel staff have seen an elderly lady in period costume walk down one of the corridors and disappear. In another corridor several people, including the duty manager of the hotel, have had the uneasy feeling that they were being followed, but turned to find no one there.

The White Hart Hotel, Bailgate, Lincoln LN1 3AR; Tel: (01522) 526222; Fax: (01522) 531798; E-mail: reservations@whitehart-lincoln.co.uk; Website: www.whitehart-lincoln.co.uk

The hotel runs ghost tours for conference guests.